Dave Brandon says students actually aren't showing up

Maybe we just triple the size of the band!

Let them fill up more of the student section.  Plus they'll be much loader so don't have to worry about not hearing them across the way.

A passport to fine sporting, circa 1990, if you will.   Ok no one on this board is going to get that one unless the lived in S. Quad in the 1980s/early 90s.

That's an interesting sociological question. From what I've read and heard about professional teams like the Pistons and the Wings, it's very typical for the seats closest to the court or rink (i.e., the most expensive) to have a high percentage of late arrivals and early departures, and I think many pro sports observers and journalists would say that so-called blue-collar fans in the cheaper seats are more passionate than the well-heeled swells who sit in the box seats and the suites. However, there's no way of knowing whether that applies to students at college events.

Many have offered suggestions revolving around reducing the cost of student tickets, but since all of the student allotment has been purchased, it's not apparent to me why people think that cost is at the root of the attendance issue.

One question that would be good to have an answer to is how many of the no-shows are actually watching the game at home or a sports bar or some other venue, and if so, why? Is it because of the high cost of concessions? The pain in the ass of taking a leak? Because they can go to Sportskeepers or wherever and drink without any hindrance while watching the game on a big screen?

Do what the airlines do, oversell and assigns seats at the gate.  Once the student section is full, turn away any more that show up -- giving them their money back and a voucher for a nice bag of peanuts.  Loyal customers get priority upgrades to better seats and faster admittance lines.  Also, make them take off their shoes as they come in.

Geez, thought Brandon understood marketing and revenue maximization.

Every ticket is scanned and tracked. The AD know which student ticket was validated for re-sale, which ticket went unused and for which game(s). There continues to be a waiting list to be eligible for tickets. There is an annual $25 fee charged to remain on this list. The University is making money either way. Also, since the tickets were already paid for, the University can't force someone to use their ticket after it has been purchased. They can regulate how it is used (resold) but they are powerless if you chose to wallpaper your bathroom with the unused tickets.

The main issue here is our legacy of having the largest crowd viewing a football game anywhere in america. This is about maintaining the streak of over 100,000 in attendance each home game. With growing apathy from students this is at risk. It is also better for TV viewers (regardless of which network) to see a packed house. As more games are televised, this also affects recruiting. Who wants to go to a school where the students don't even show up to the game?

Brandon needs to trim the student section. Additonally, did you know that sutdents from U of M Dearborn and U of M Flint are eligible to purchase football tickets? Those on the waiting list should come before students at a campus that is not even considered a satellite campus. Now get of my effing lawn.

As both an undergrad and a grad student one thing that really bothers me is the preferential seating for graduate students. Why as a first yr law student should you be in the front few rows? In addition, in my grad school, there are a lot of state ppl as well as other schools represented. Besides from the CMUs, Hope Colleges, and unsucessful D1 programs of the nation, most of my grad school classmates don't care as much about the games. Although grad students may not buy tix at all if they aren't in the front, isn't that enough of a reason not to allow them to buy tix? With that said, I noticed in undergrad the wasted sorority girls were less likely to go to games compared to all the ppl i mentioned above. I also noticed that some of my international student friends don't care and don't know what is going on at the game if they even show up. 

So where does it leaves us? We can't discriminate people based on the reasons I listed. I'm afraid the HAIL program could be our only option. Maybe we can see if more people are more inclined. I think a limit on the # of students who can buy tix is a bad idea also. As a PA resident, my friends from high school stressed about whether or not they would be eligible to buy tix for the upcoming years. If we move towards a MCard only system of tix like the bball one that exists now, I think the Athletic department will be able to provide more data and make a better decision than us guessing. 

This was my last season as a Student Football Season Ticket holder. I enrolled in 2007 and got to experience the ups-and-downs of the Final Lloyd Carr year, made it to EVERY home game (save for Minnesota as I moved off campus that weekend), proceeded to make it to 90% of the RR era games, and never once did I lose interest. The only thing I am losing interest in are the caliber of students Michigan has in the student section. The previous 4 years I met a ton of people I will forever call friends; this year however- tons of bratty "upper classmen" Who act like Fresh-tards. They have no appreciation for the Big House, nor do they actually care about the school.

I am going to miss next season when I will no longer have Student Season Tickets;

-Still need to find out how to apply for Alumni tickets and at least get in the wait to receive them

This may be selfish, but I hope some of these students who have tickets plan on selling a bunch next year as I plan on going to all the home games and one love an opportunity to still sit in the student section even if I will no longer be a student.

One thing that has changed since I was there is that the lock on start times is now 12:00 or 3:30.

Most of our games started at 1:00.  This turned out to be an ideal start time.  It gave enough time to do some tailgating before you headed off to wait in line for the game.  You were done in enough time to get back and hang out or study a little bit before dinner, then go out.

12:00 is a pretty harsh start time if you want to do any tailgating or pre-gaming.  That's half the fun of being in college.  3:30 games mean a late dinner and not much time if you need to study and still want to go out.

This is not an excuse . . . you should not get tickets if you are not comitted to going, but it is one more thing that throws up a hurdle against the path of least resistence.

 

Do it like Alabama. Don't do assigned tickets, just general admission for the student section. Additionally make it so that if you miss a certain number of kickoffs/games then you cannot buy tickets the next year, period. Students are at the game at least an hour early at Bryant Denny, maybe we should follow their lead.

It'a a good time to be a student.  Why bother to buy a season ticket? So many tickets go unused, it has to be easy to get them for little or no money. 

I'm sorry but Dave Brandon must by lying.  I have heard over and over here on the board that the students are merely squeezing into the lower section of the bowl and that in actuality, they are all there and it is merely an optical illusion we are seeing.  

Why would Brandon make up a story like this?

Have two allotments per year. After the first 4 home games, students who haven't come on time are ineligible to buy the next four. That will effectively eliminate all late/non-attending students from the Ohio game for home years, as well as keep accountability. All student tickets that come open are sold as packages to fans on the general wait list. If timing is an issue, make the decision on the first 2-3 games for the final 4 to allow for an extra couple weeks or month for calculating and purchasing. If the issue is getting students to pay twice, have them pay for the season upfront and automatically get kicked out of the system and get 75% refund at the half (so Brandon makes a little more) and second half season tix go to resale for the defunct student seats.

The announced attendance is based on SALES + every additional body inside the stadium.  How else can you get 112k+ in a stadium that holds 109k and has empty seats??

There are more student seats than students that WANT to be there.

The rising cost of tickets and the "right" to purchase them continues to go up. 

When supply is larger than the demand, the supply is reduced. (Shrink the student section).

That is a no-brainer.  Drop the student section by 3,000 in 2013 and if the trend continues, drop it by another 2,000 or more in 2014.  If it fills continuosly in 2013, add 1,000 in 2014.

If the AD makes more tickets available to the general public as season tickets, they are GUARANTEED to be sold.(more money and no empty seats).

Again a no-brainer.  BUT I think the trend is growing across the B1G except Nebraska that the cost of the PSD + plus the cost of the tickets is reaching a breaking point.  $1,630 for two seats to six games, where two of them are Air Force and UMass and no significant OOC game; compared to 2011 when there were eight home games that included ND, Nebraska and OSU for the same price is very telling.

With ND going away and no significant OOC games and a substantial price increase coming soon, the average fan is getting squeezed pretty hard.  At $135 per seat per game and half of the games are against lower MAC and bottom of the B1G competition plus food and parking, watching from the comfort of my couch is starting to look better.

My family has had seats at Michigan games since 1956 and this is the first time I have considered not renewing my season tickets.  That extra $2,000+ a year toward retirement seems like a good idea, especially with the global economy looking like...

Maybe a carrot would work better than a stick.  Charge a bit more for the tickets, and refund the extra money to those students who make it to every game, or enter the students who've attended every game in a lottery to win ipods or something.